


Leading the Blind

by lover_of_blue_roses



Category: Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018), Queen (Band)
Genre: Drummer boy broke his glasses, Gen, Roger centeric, but he has his boys to take care and love him, roger is blind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:16:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23896681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lover_of_blue_roses/pseuds/lover_of_blue_roses
Summary: Roger breaks his last pair of glasses and can't get on without them but his boys are there for him.
Relationships: John Deacon & Brian May & Freddie Mercury & Roger Taylor
Comments: 9
Kudos: 30





	Leading the Blind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [waterlilyinclearwater](https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterlilyinclearwater/gifts).



> A drabble gift for Lily

Roger normally had extra sunglasses, lots of them in fact. It's just that they often ended up- well, not with him. Often in perfectly reasonable respectable places like his cars' glove compartment, it's just that now well obviously, he didn't have his cars with him.

He looked around the discotheque rather uselessly. As much as the sunglasses helped to contribute to his rockstar look, he mostly wore them for the practical purpose of seeing. Glasses would be far too nerdy for his rockstar look and he even prefered going in blind than wearing them. But now his prescription sunglasses, the last pair that had survived this long into their touring, was laying broken and shattered on the ground. Better them than him but he could feel the scrape swelling up his left side. 

It hadn't even been intentional, he doesn't know how this keeps happening to him. Everything had been going so great. They'd arrived in Seoul from Kyoto and had a great banging concert. Korea much like Japan is filled with wonderful fans who love them intensively which means there shouldn't have been any problems. However of course the trendy wonderful discotheque the whole band had ended up in to party, dance, and drink, was full of tourists. And so it wasn't some charming locals that had objected to Roger but rather a bunch of yanks from the far side of the Pacific. Although he or they were too drunk to communicate what the problem was; if it was his feminine looks or his British accent, hell maybe it was his money that he was clearly throwing about. 

While they had swung at him, he had done nothing but tip his barstool to make some distance made between them. Thankfully a bouncer came right quick to break it up. Aside for that blow he was fine, except of course that he couldn't see anything. And fuck them, that was his last pair and he couldn't possibly find the boys faces amongst the chaotic sea of the crowd.

Without his glasses he was basically blind. Not as blind as a bat because good God did he hate that expression. The fact that *some* bats have echolocation doesn't mean they don't also have sight. Which people could know if they'd ever seen one, anywhere, at the Zoo, on the Telly, their little faces looking back at you with their eyes, that they can see with. He didn't know where that expression came from but if he'd ever found that person he would hunt them down for this terrible error against the most populous mammal on the earth, aside for humans.

Maybe he had had enough to drink, Roger contemplated as he waited for his boys to approach him. There had certainly been a lot of commotion to say nothing of the gathered crowd, so perhaps if he stood standing slightly back against the bar, he could just wait to be spotted. And indeed it didn't take very long for Deaky to find him.

Deaky had taken to fatherhood very well, and since then his responsible nature had only increased. Honestly he was almost as doting as Brian, although where Brian was more about soft edges, Deaky was more harsh punishments and a firm grasp of consequences. The carrot and the stick if you will or a mother and a father as Freddie loved to tease, especially because the two hated it so. Despite their responsible and caring natures Brian and John could be they still party with the best of them and could let loose just the same. It was only in times of crisis like these that their nurturing instincts came out in their strings section.

Roger didn't recognize Deaky without his glasses, as far as he could tell it was a big blob of brunette, he couldn't even tell if it was a girl or a boy, but thankfully he could recognize Deaky by his strong, distinct accent. Once Deaky had found him, the bassist let out a loud whistle of four distinct notes that the boys would recognize and sure enough they soon came crawling. Roger was pretty sure that as he wasn't the instigator and as he did his best not to fight back that he wasn't actually being kicked out of the club.

"How do you always get yourself into such messes?" Freddie worried as he wrapped Roger up in a hug. "Are you okay? Are you alright?" Freddie asked so aggressively Roger couldn't even answer. "You're not hurt are you darling? We can't have anything happen to you." Delicately Freddie skimmed with the lightest touch over the scrape to his face.

A small cynical voice inside of Roger interrupted that last statement as it would be only bothersome to Freddie if anything should happen to him while they tour because they needed his services. But he knew that was just the lingering voice of his father still echoing about and Freddie really cared about him, as a person, because they were friends. Closer than that even as Roger smiled reassuringly at Freddie looking into those deep brown eyes and let himself feel warm and comforted in Freddie's embrace. 

And it wasn't just Freddie. As he tried to look around at their indistinct faces he knew even without being able to see their expressions. That while he was obviously a valuable member and they certainly couldn't play without him, first and foremost was a concern for his well-being because they genuinely cared for each other.

John was always half-joking that that was what made the band work. Despite being four very different people, with distinctly different musical backgrounds, and strongly held opinions, they never changed and always stayed together and that's what made it work. Roger certainly couldn't doubt that, as much as he enjoyed making his solo album, and oh what a blast it had been to write, record and even perform, it was nowhere near as successful as Queen. That didn't mean he didn't think it was worth doing, he liked having his own artistic outlet but he couldn't deny that what they had with Queen was special.

"Do you have a spare set at the hotel?" Brian asked as he watch one of his old friends try and fail to make eye contact with him.

"Well-"

"Roger," Brian scolded like he was an errant child.

"It's not my fault," Roger said hotly as they made it out of the discotheque and the cold air washed over them all. "I started the tour with multiple sets, 'course I know that I need them. It's just- They've all," He waves about. He was pretty sure he'd lost one pair when he'd stayed the night at some fabulous woman's house. But that night had been so much fun he couldn't complain even though he was pretty sure she'd nicked them rather than him merely misplacing them. "And then I tried to get them replaced-"

"Ah, that's why you wanted to go out during a monsoon," Deaky realized. Strict stay in place orders had come down, not that there would have been much point in wading through horrible wind or sheets of rain and flooding, everything, including glasses shops, were closed. But Roger had been fine, or so he claimed, because obviously that's why he had a spare pair. Only now it too was gone, nothing more than broken glass on the ground. 

"Now, now, what's that all matter if what's done is done- We can fix this somehow, I'm sure between Phoebe and Gerry we'll be able to find a solution, until then my dear, I'm afraid you'll have to rely on us," Freddie offered diplomatically like the peacemaker he was. 

A thousand and one times Roger had been brought home by Freddie, one or both of them too inebriated, either with drugs or alcohol or both, to walk back to where they were kipping. There was no need for all four of them to go though, they could stay and enjoy what was left of the rest of the evening but of course, those big softies, all tagged along. They'd probably stay up playing Gin Rummy or Scrabble instead, and honestly just as well. Roger wouldn't trade these moments with his boys for anything. 

Unlike all of his previous times of leaning on Freddie, this time he also had Deaky. Not that Brian wouldn't offer, but Brian was tall and that would made it awkward compared to John's comparable height. Roger couldn't imagine where he'd be more comfortable and safe than in between his band members as they guided him through the unseeable streets of the capital.

**Author's Note:**

> Why are there no roadies or other members of the entourage? For plot purposes I do understand this is unrealistic.


End file.
